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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-11-16 15:30
Last update date: 2020-11-16 15:30
The All-Hong Kong Residents Alliance announced on Sunday (15th) a private rent control plan, recommending an annual rent adjustment of 5%, and urging the government to implement rent control as soon as possible.
The proposal of the major alliance is not only reasonable, but also has its urgent needs. However, the government has dealt with rent control disputes without resolution for many years, and it is really difficult to protect the housing rights of the grassroots.
Sub-house tenants are often treated unfairly by the landlord. However, the supply of housing in Hong Kong is tight and tenants have limited bargaining power, so they can only swallow their breath.
The Hong Kong Subdivided Residents Alliance has collected opinions from more than 100 subdivided residents in various districts, and formulated eight major demands in its rental control plan, including the priority of tenant renewal rights, legislation to control landlord’s overcharge of utility bills, and initiation Rents, etc., include all tenants living in "unsuitable housing", such as subdivided housing, squatter housing, and cubicle housing.
In addition to this, the major alliance also suggests that the government can set the starting rent based on the "rateable value" and incorporate indicators such as inflation into rent adjustments, with an annual increase of 5%.
The major league has set a 5% ceiling for rent adjustment, not only for the interests of tenants, but also to balance the return on investment of landlords.
Excluding the economic performance during the epidemic, Hong Kong’s inflation rate has been hovering at around 2% per year for many years. Therefore, the major alliance’s proposal can protect tenants from unreasonable rent increases while also protecting landlords’ investment returns. Will not underperform inflation.
Although the problem of subdivided housing is an imbalance between the supply and demand of the property market, the remote water cannot find the near fire. Even if the Hong Kong government has the will and ability to drastically increase the supply of housing, it will take at least ten or eight years to reverse the abnormal development of the property market.
Although rent management is a stopgap measure, it can at least help the grassroots rental market stabilize.
A large coalition of sub-divided residents in Hong Kong formed by a number of non-governmental organizations urged the implementation of rent control as soon as possible.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
Regulation should be more efficient
It is not a new thing for the private sector to propose rules for rent control for the government. However, the government's attitude over the years seems to be evasive and has no commitment.
As early as 2013, the "Kwai Chung Residential Residents Alliance" submitted a written submission to the Legislative Council, describing the reasons for the worsening of the problem. In the following year, the government also studied the experience of implementing rent control in Hong Kong and overseas, and determined the environment and rent Management’s opinions were incorporated into the "Long Term Housing Strategy" published in the same year.
However, the government’s evasive attitude towards rent control can be seen in the Government’s appointment of a "subdivided housing" rent control research working group in April this year to "examine the current situation of "subdivided housing" in Hong Kong," review and review the rent control of subdivided housing. Measures related to business control.
The government has to repeat the study six years ago. Of course, it must be more efficient, but at the same time, it can also send the Director of the Transport and Housing Bureau Chen Fan to the Sub-House Staycation to understand the needs of sub-household tenants most directly.
Even though studies have pointed out that rent control may drive landlords to select tenants more strictly, reduce the owners’ desire to maintain and repair their rental units, etc., these side effects can not only borrow foreign experience, improve the integrity of policies, and strengthen the supervisory function of the bureau. It can also prevent an unreasonable increase in rents, so that tenants will be on a more equal basis with landlords without the right to collective bargaining.
It is true that rent control is not a panacea. The solution is still to increase housing supply. But the question is what good policy does the government have in the short term to protect the housing rights of the grassroots once and for all?
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